Deprecated - refer to Mantle for better builder

https://github.com/jpxor/Mantle

cxxbuilder

Simple C++ Incremental Build Tool

The cxxbuilder script will:

1. Find all source files,
2. Compile each source file if required,
3. Link objects files to create your executable.

Simple as that.

In more words, this is a python script that will search your project directory for source files and execute the commands set in the config files. The compiler command is run on each source file (*.c, *.cpp) if required, and then the linker command is run once at the end to produce the executable.

The compiler command is only run if there is no object file with 'last modified' date newer than its corresponding source file, or that source file's included header files.

The config files are split up into a platform independent project config file and and platform dependent config file.

Getting Started

To use cxxbuilder in your C/C++ projects, download or checkout cxxbuilder into a subfolder of your project. Update the project.config and plaform/*.config files as required. Execute cxxbuild.py with the config files as parameters. Example:

# cd cxxbuilder
# python cxxbuild.py project.config platforms/msvc.config

Config file format

The format is simply a variable name and colon, followed by a list of of values on separate lines.

NAME0:
value0
value1

NAME2:
value3

Project config

Project config specifies the project root directory, binary name and path, include files, targets, and project specific libraries for each target.

In this sample project config, all directories are specified relative to the project build directory, which is in the project root. This project targets windows and linux 64bit platforms.

ROOT_DIR:
..

BIN: 
my-program-name

BIN_DIR:
../bin

INCLUDE_DIRS:
../src/include
../dep/glfw/include
../dep/glew/include

TARGETS:
win64
linux64

LIBS:win64
../dep/glfw/win64/glfw3.lib 
../dep/glew/lib/Release/x64/glew32s.lib
opengl32.lib

LIBS:linux64
../dep/glfw/linux64/glfw3.a
../dep/glew/lib/Release/linux64/glew.a
GL

Platform config

The platform specific config is used to configure the build for specific platforms and tools. For example, MSVC or MinGW for Windows, and GCC for Linux.

This config provides the compile and link commands along with any prefixes required for correct syntax of those tools. There is also a section for libraries required for a platform.

This sample platform config is for building win64 apps using MSVC

TARGET:
win64

INC_PREFIX:
-I

LIB_PREFIX:

BIN_SUFFIX:
.exe

CXXFLAGS:
-std:c++14 -W4 -EHsc -MD

LDFLAGS:
-NODEFAULTLIB:LIBCMT

LIBS:
gdi32.lib
kernel32.lib
user32.lib
shell32.lib

COMPILER:
cl -c {CXXFLAGS} -Fo{OBJ_PATH} {INCLUDE_DIRS} {SRC_PATH}

LINKER:
link -out:{BIN_DIR}/{TARGET}/{BIN}{BIN_SUFFIX} {OBJ_FILES} {LIBS} {LDFLAGS}

{CMD_VARS}

The variables used in the compiler and linker commands are:

• SRC_PATH: path to a single source file. The compile command is run once per source file found under the project root directory,
• OBJ_PATH: same as SRC_PATH, except the extension is changed to ".o",
• OBJ_FILES: list of all object files found under the root directory after the compile pass,
• others: all others are specified in the config files.

Why?

I built this because I couldn't get make to rebuild object files when a header file changed. I also wanted a better understanding and more control over the build process for my projects. I like building from the command line, and so this was the next logical step.